


Compadres

by Jena Bartley (jenab)



Category: Soldier of Fortune Inc
Genre: Episode Tag, Gen, Team Dynamics, Torture, Yuletide, challenge:Yuletide 2006, recipient:Raine Wynd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-25
Updated: 2006-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-18 04:53:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/185246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenab/pseuds/Jena%20Bartley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Benny Ray had taken one look at her and dug his heels in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Compadres

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Fox for the beta.

Capturing a warlord and enabling a successful coup to take place didn't always make it easy to get out of the country. This time, getting out of Njazidja -- formerly known (and soon to be known again) as Grande Comore -- getting out was easy. Which Margo was profoundly grateful for.

Her back was a mass of painful nerves and twitching skin. Her breasts were tender from when they had been mauled by the Captain, and she felt dirty and violated. She wanted the hell out of the country and back to the Silver Star Hotel with the sun drenched beaches and people wearing far too little. She wanted enough codeine to knock out an elephant, and a long, hot bath to soak in.

Margo shifted on the hard seat, trying to find a comfortable position. Pain shot down her back, making her breath catch and her hands clench tightly into fists. The bastard hadn't left a mark on her back with the whip except for reddened skin but the pain had been unbearable. Now, the pain seemed to come in waves, making her back spasm. Chance had scrounged up a couple of aspirin from somewhere; that managed to dull the pain just a bit.

The plane they had `borrowed' was a stripped down cargo plane at least twenty years old. Margo had looked at it dubiously, but Chance had reassured them that the engine was in excellent shape. All well and good, except there was no comfortable place to sit in a plane designed to hold cargo that wouldn't complain about the accommodations. She'd been in C-130s that were luxurious compared to this.

A foot nudged her, making her look up. Benny Ray was sitting across from her on the floor, still only wearing his tank top, despite the coolness of the bay. Margo was still wearing his shirt, the larger size allowing air to flow along her back to cool skin gone far too hot from the brutal flogging.

Benny Ray crooked two fingers at her in a `come here' sign. To his left, Matt was stretched out on the floor, one hand across his eyes. She could see him watching her, concern and worry clear in his dark eyes. CJ was up front with Chance, a steady flow of chatter coming out from the cockpit. Bruises and cuts marred all of them.

Benny Ray gestured again for her to come to him. Margo looked at the hard, metal floor before sighing. It couldn't be any worse than where she was sitting. With slow, careful movements, she made her way over to him. Benny Ray reached out to steady her, arranging her until she was stretched out on her side, her head pillowed on one hard thigh. His hand rested lightly on her shoulder, being careful not to touch her back.

Most times after being manhandled the way she'd been back in the compound, Margo steered clear of any intimate contact with men, but this was Benny Ray. Benny Ray, who had become a close friend and comrade. Someone who had seen her at her worst and best, just like she had with him. Right now, Benny Ray meant safety and comfort, and for a while Margo could let him coddle her and touch her, when she normally never let anyone else do for her. They had certainly come a long way from their first meeting in the basement of the Silver Star Hotel.

When Matt had first approached her with the offer to join the team he was building, it had taken Margo only a moment to say yes. Life after the CIA was not turning out the way she had anticipated. The money was good, but industrial espionage was just as cutthroat as spying for the CIA. No one could be trusted and anyone could be bought with enough money. She'd been starting to feel even more paranoid and frustrated than when she was CIA. At least working for Matt, Margo knew she could trust him completely. The fact she and Matt were ex-lovers didn't stop her from joining the team. She wasn't about to let her past intimate relationship interfere with the new position. Besides, what she and Matt had was over and buried; at least she thought it was.

Benny Ray had been her first major hurdle to overcome in being accepted as part of the team. She'd expected some resistance to her once she saw who else Matt had recruited. The rest--CJ, Chance, and Benny Ray-- were all ex-military unlike her. Her background was pure spook.

Benny Ray had taken one look at her and dug his heels in. No way did he want a woman on the team. It didn't matter what her background was, or that she was there because of Matt. Margo was a woman and a woman didn't belong on this team. The show and tell with the sniper rifles had gotten him to at least respect her knowledge and how she could anticipate what he was looking for. It had also given her some insight into how much of an expert Benny Ray was as a sniper.

After that, Benny Ray had backed down slightly, but the two of them spent some time circling each other warily and learning how to interact with each other both in the field and at home. She didn't have the same problem with CJ and Chance. They stood back and watched her and Benny Ray sort things out between them. Somewhere along the line something clicked and they were a team.

It was about then that Margo realized where a big part of Benny Ray's opposition to her on the team came from. Special Forces units, like the one Matt had built, lived by their own code of honour. Loyalty. Never leave a man behind. Always look out for your fellow teammates in every way possible. It was a code both Benny Ray and Matt believed in to the fullest, one they lived and would die by.

It was a code Margo had seen in action before but had never been a part of. She'd been on other teams before, some purely spooks while others were a mixture of spies, civilians, and military people. Matt's team was pure Special Forces, complete with their own rules and code.

Benny Ray had taken one look at her and seen not only a woman, but a former spook, someone he didn't trust to watch his back or know would come back for him when he was down. Someone who didn't know the code he and Matt lived and died by. Because spies had a tendency to look out for only themselves and their own interests. They didn't believe in absolute loyalty to their comrades and brothers in arms.

It was a code she wasn't use to working by. As a CIA agent, there were certain codes they lived by, but none like the one Matt ran his team by. She'd never had the complete faith in her fellow operatives and assets as she now did in her teammates. The knowledge that they would come for her. Matt, Chance, CJ, Benny Ray, they had her back. Always. All of them would go through hell to come after her while the CIA would have left her behind.

She understood now why Benny Ray had been opposed to her on the team. He didn't trust her to cover his back or the others', didn't think she would understand the meaning of `never leave a man behind'. Nor about absolute loyalty to one another. Matt had known, but she'd needed to prove that to the others. She'd shown him she had the knowledge of what he needed, and over time, she had shown him and the others she would also go through hell to bring them back. And when they fully realized that, there had been an almost silent click of the five separate individuals becoming an unified team.

All the time she had been tied to the post and whipped, Margo knew the men would come for her. Knew it would take death to stop them. It had enabled her to try and stay limp as the whip stuck her over and over, instead of fighting it. The pain of the flogging left her breathless, and unable to do more than gasp. But when they laid a hand on her, Margo fought back, screaming and cursing as she tried to hit the soldier mauling her.

Through it all, she knew they would come for her. And they had, with bloodlust and death in their eyes. They took the guards down and freed her. Benny Ray's hands had been gentle as he touched her, slipping his shirt over her nakedness even as stench of sweat, blood, and cordite rolled off of him. Chance handed her his shiv to deal with her violators, understanding in his eyes along with the same need to strike back at those who had hurt them.

In the end, she didn't kill him - but it had been close. She'd taken great pleasure in tying General Achmed Abdula Jouhard to the post where he'd calmly sat and watched as his Captain had whipped her. The fear in his eyes had pleased Margo. She wanted to kill him, badly, but it wouldn't erase what he had done to her. Instead, they finished the job they had been hired to do, which was overthrow the General.

Coming out of his stronghold, they had been greeted by the woman who had been in the cell next to Margo's. The woman had stood there, head up, eyes determined, with her people gathering behind her to do their part and take advantage of the hope and change Margo and the others had given her. Despite the pain radiating down her battered back, Margo found herself standing just a little bit straighter as she and the woman exchanged looks. Margo knew what she'd just gone through paled to what the woman had suffered over the years at the hands of the warlord and his men.

Seeing the citizens lined up with their makeshift weapons only reaffirmed why Margo did this, why she was part of Matt's team. Sometimes, despite the odds and the brutality of what they saw and did, the payoff was more than worth it. They could help others, change a situation for the better and even make some kind of difference. It helped sometimes to see that, when the nightmares got too bad and she couldn't sleep -- or when, no matter how much she showered, the feelings of violation and dirt never left her skin and soul.

But right now, the adrenalin crash was leaving her drained and in serious pain. Benny Ray's hand was warm on her shoulder, a gentle touch that comforted her and lulled her to sleep, knowing he was standing guard over her. It was ironic after their very rocky start, how she and Benny Ray had formed a deep bond that went beyond mere friendship. They were comrades in arms, always looking out for each other. Benny Ray was the only man right now that Margo would allow to touch her.

She never imagined she and Benny Ray would grow to have such a close relationship like this. There was the awareness of how attractive each other was but things stayed on a platonic level between them. For which Margo was very grateful. Benny Ray looked out for her and protected her, and in return, Margo did the same for him. Not just out in the field but at home as well. Right now, when Margo needed comfort, Benny Ray was there in a way she could never let Matt be.

There was too much history between her and Matt. Too much still unresolved and unspoken between them. She couldn't let Matt touch her right now, the way Benny Ray was. She didn't need a lover right now, not even an ex-lover and good friend. She needed just what Benny Ray was giving her; a very good friend and brother in arms with no past sexual history getting in the way.

Closing her eyes, Margo let the feel of Benny Ray's hard thigh under her head, the warmth of his hand on her shoulder, and the droning of the cargo plane lull her into sleep. It was going to be a long trip home.

  



End file.
